Ernie Copland (14 October 1924 – December 1971) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played for Arbroath, Dundee and

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leagu ...

. He was selected for

Scotland's Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzer ...

squad, but did not travel to the finals and never actually played for the national side. Although selected for the 22 man squad for the

, the Scottish Football Association only budgeted to take 13 players (including only one

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

) to the finals in Switzerland.UNLUCKY 13 FOR SCOTS
''

Evening Telegraph ''Evening Telegraph'' is a common newspaper name, and may refer to: * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dundee), Scotland * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dublin), Ireland, published 1871–1924. * ''Coventry Evening Telegraph The ''Coventry Telegraph'' is a lo ...

'', 29 December 2004. Copland was one of the players who stayed at home on reserve, with the likes of

Bobby Combe James Robert Combe (29 January 1924 – 19 January 1991) was a Scottish footballer, who played for Hibernian and was player/manager of Dumbarton for one season. He also represented Scotland and the Scottish Football League XI. A schoolboy inter ...

and

Jimmy Binning James Binning (21 December 1922 – 1991) was a Scottish footballer who played for Arbroath and Dumfries side Queen of the South. Career From the season 1948–1949 until his departure, Binning scored six goals in his 84 league games for Arbro ...

. Copland was chosen as reserve in the Scottish team for the World Cup qualifiers in 1957, and travelled to

Basle , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...

(Switzerland), Stuttgart (Germany), and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

(Spain), but did not play. Copland died

Elizabeth, South Australia Elizabeth is an outer northern suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as par ...

in December 1971, at the age of 47.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copland, Ernie 1924 births 1971 deaths Scottish footballers Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League players Arbroath F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players 1954 FIFA World Cup players Association football forwards